Negro League Baseball at Wrigley Field

This article appears in SABR’s “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.

Well into the twentieth century, Black players were barred from participating in baseball games at Wrigley Field, even though there had been Negro League baseball in the area for many years.

The first evidence of a change in this practice did not come until 1942. Wrigley Field opened its door to Black baseball during the years of World War II and there were several meaningful encounters.

With America’s entrance into the war, Dizzy Dean formed a team consisting almost entirely of recently drafted and enlisted major-league and minor-league players, and barnstormed around the United States. On May 24, 1942, Dean’s “all-star” team faced Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in a game at Wrigley Field, the first time a Black team ever played there. R.S. Simmons wrote in the Pittsburgh Courier, “this was the first time, sepia ball players ever played at the Cubs Park.”1

As noted by Timothy Gay in Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert, “Most fans that afternoon were dark-skinned, an unheard of happenstance at Wrigley, which had always been off-limits to Black baseball. The Negro Leagues’ annual East-West Classic (all-star game) and other big blackball matchups were traditionally played at Comiskey Park on the city’s South side, home to a teeming Ghetto known as the Black Belt.2

Among the players on Dean’s squad was Zeke Bonura, then in the Army, who had played for both the White Sox and Cubs during his major-league career. It was “Zeke Bonura Day,” and the fan favorite, known affectionately as Banana Nose, was given a floral offering with banana trimmings before the game.3 He averaged .317 in his four seasons with the White Sox, and twice finished in the top 20 in the MVP balloting. In 1937, he led the White Sox in batting (.345) home runs (19), and RBIs (100).

The Monarchs defeated Dean’s All-Stars 3-1 in front of a crowd of 29,775. It had been expected that Bob Feller would pitch for Dean’s team. He was in the Navy, but naval authorities would not let him participate. Nevertheless, the game’s organizer, Abe Saperstein, sent $1,000 to Feller. That money was donated to Navy relief.4

The best player in Dean’s lineup was Cecil Travis, who came to the game from Camp Wheeler in Georgia. He had been runner-up in the American League batting race in 1941. He went 0-for-3 in the game.

Dean pitched one inning for his team, retiring the Monarchs in order as Bill Simms lined to center field, Herb Cyrus grounded to shortstop, and Ted Strong popped to second base. Hilton Smith later told author John Holway that Dean “wasn’t too good; we kind of carried him along.”5 Dean gave way to Johnny Grodzicki, who hurled for the Cardinals at the end of the 1941 season before going into the Army. He pitched through the sixth inning. He later was assigned to the 17th Airborne Division and fought in Europe in 1944 and ’45. He was wounded on March 30, 1945. He and his unit had been dropped behind enemy lines five days earlier. A shell exploded near his position and shrapnel became lodged in his leg. Grodzicki’s wounds never fully healed,6 but he did come back to appear in 19 games with the Cardinals in 1946 and 1947.

Paige pitched six innings and gave up only one third-inning run and two hits. He struck out two batters (Grodzicki and catcher Ken Silvestri). Silvestri came to the game from Camp Custer, Michigan, where he was managing the base’s baseball team. It was a strange set of circumstances that allowed the Dean All-Stars to break the ice in the third inning. Joe Gallagher, the left fielder, singled to lead off, beating out a slow roller to third base. Gallagher was serving at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri. With Grodzicki batting, catcher James “Joe” Greene of the Monarchs called for a pitchout. As expected, Gallagher was running on the play. Grodzicki reached out and bunted the ball. With second baseman William “Barney” Serrell moving over to cover second and first baseman Buck O’Neil charging to field the bunt, there was nobody covering first, and Grodzicki was safe. Paige picked up the bunt and was charged with a throwing error when his throw the unoccupied base hit Grodzicki and allowed Gallagher to advance to third.

With runners at the corners, Emmett “Heinie” Mueller, who had played for the Phillies before the war, and, like Gallagher, was at Jefferson Barracks, forced Grodzicki at second, Gallagher scoring on the play.7 There was no further scoring as Paige got Claude Corbitt to ground back to him. Paige grabbed the comebacker, forced Mueller at second, and Serrell threw to first baseman O’Neil for the double play to complete the inning.

The 1-0 lead did not last long. The Monarchs tied the score in the top of the fourth inning. Cyrus led off with a single and moved to second when Ted Strong executed a sacrifice bunt. Cyrus scored on a single by Willard Brown, Brown’s second hit of the game. Grodzicki struck out Greene and O’Neil, and the score was tied at 1-1 after four innings. It would remain that way until the eighth inning.

Hilton Smith relieved Paige in the seventh inning, and was the beneficiary when the Monarchs scored two eighth-inning runs. By then Al Piechota, who had replaced Grodzicki, was in his second inning of work. He had pitched for the Braves in 1940 and 1941, and was in the Navy at the time of the game. Bill Simms singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a bunt by Cyrus. He moved to third when Strong flied out to right. Piechota issued an intentional pass to Brown, who stole second base. Joe Greene, the Monarchs catcher, was at the plate. On a 3-and-2 pitch, he cleared the bases with a looping line drive to center field that that fell in front of the charging center fielder, Thomas “Red” Johnson. The ball skipped past Johnson and Greene wound up at second base with a double. O’Neil’s single advanced Greene to third, but he was stranded there when Serrell grounded out.

That completed the scoring. Smith struck out three batters (Bonura, Johnson, Piechota) in his three innings on the mound and was credited with the 3-1 win.8 Mueller lined a single off Smith in the ninth inning, but Dean’s squad came up empty. Corbitt grounded to short, forcing Mueller at second base. The final play of the game was described by Fay Young in the Chicago Defender: “Dangerous Cecil Travis, late of the Washington Senators, slammed one at (Jesse) Williams who came up with it, tossed to Serrell to kill Corbitt going into second and then Serrell’s rifle peg to Joe (sic) O’Neil at first completed a lightning double play when Joe scooped the ball up with one hand.”9 Piechota was charged with the loss.

Gallagher, one of the first ballplayers drafted into the Army (he was inducted on May 12, 1941), did not play in the majors after the war, and went on to coach at the collegiate level. Mueller, who had homered in his first big-league at-bat, did not play in the majors after returning from the Army in 1946. He went on to manage in the minor leagues.

Corbitt had yet to appear in a big-league game when he played for the Dean All-Stars. He started off in the Yankees farm system in 1937 and batted over .300 in each of his first four minor-league seasons. During the 1941 season he was in the Dodgers organization at Montreal, where he batted .282. After the war, he made his major-league debut with the Dodgers. Prior to the 1946 season, he was sold to Cincinnati, and he played parts of three seasons with the Reds.

Playing right field for Dean’s team was George Archie. Archie had batted .269 in 105 games with Washington in 1941 before being sent to the St. Louis Browns toward the end of the season. He joined the Army two days after Pearl Harbor and after the war played briefly in 1946 with the Browns. He got into four games at the beginning of the season, but was sent to the minors and played in the minors through 1950.

Many of the Monarchs players were forgotten as the years passed. Satchel Paige and Willard Brown witnessed the end of segregation and played in the major leagues. Each was enshrined at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown. Paige was inducted in 1971 and Brown in 2006. Brown, at age 32, played 21 games with the 1947 St. Louis Browns. He was the fourth player of color to play in the majors, and the highlight of his short major-league career was a two-run game-tying inside-the-park homer off Hal Newhouser of Detroit on August 13, 1947. The homer was the first by a player of color in the American League. Brown served in Europe during World War II and was one of two Black players (the other being Leon Day) on the OISE (Overseas Invasion Service Expedition) All-Stars in the 1945 ETO (European Theater of Operations) Championship.10

Paige, at age forty-something, joined the Indians in 1948 and went 6-1 as Cleveland advanced to the World Series. He made one appearance in the Series, retiring both Boston Braves he faced in a lopsided Indians loss in Game Five. The Tribe clinched the Series the following day.

But the pace of integration was all too slow. The other eight Monarchs who played that day would not have the opportunity to exhibit their skills at the major-league level. Smith, at age 41, finished his career with the Monarchs in 1948, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown in 2001. Catcher Joe Greene served in World War II and finished with the Cleveland Buckeyes in 1948. Serrell drifted from the Monarchs to the Mexican League and played briefly, in 1951, with San Francisco in the Pacific Coast League. Herb Cyrus, after his first three years with the Monarchs, played under his given name of Herb Souell. By the time he received an invite to play in the minor leagues, it was 1952, he was 39, and his talents had eroded. The shortstop Jesse “Bill” Williams was also 39 in 1952 when he first played on an integrated team. He was in 126 games with Vancouver in the Class-A Western International League and batted .251. Bill Simms, who played left field and was the first batter in the game, last played, at age 35, for the independent Black Crackers in 1944. Ted Strong, the right fielder, like Greene served in the military during World War II. At 34, he last played for the Indianapolis Clowns in 1948. He was also an accomplished basketball player and played with the Harlem Globetrotters beginning in the 1930s.

But Buck O’Neil left an unmatched legacy. By the time baseball integrated in 1947, he was past his prime. He lost three seasons serving in the Navy during World War II. After his playing days he joined the Chicago Cubs as a scout (Lou Brock was his most famous find), and in 1962 became one of the team’s coaches. In later life, the affable O’Neil was instrumental in founding and promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, and his appearance on the Ken Burns production of Baseball earned him a new fan following. His statue at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is one of the first things visitors see, and an annual award is given in his honor.

On July 26, 1942, Paige was honored at Wrigley Field as the Monarchs played a doubleheader against the Memphis Red Sox. The two teams were contending for the championship of the Negro American League and Paige was scheduled to oppose lefty Verdel Mathis of Memphis. Paige received a gold watch from the Chicago Defender that was inscribed, “From the World’s Greatest Weekly to the World’s Greatest Pitcher.”11 He also received a radio, a suit of clothes, a traveling bag, and other gifts from participating Chicago merchants.12 Memphis won the opener, 10-4, and Kansas City won the second game, 4-2.

Promotions were not uncommon when Black baseball was on the bill and on June 4, 1944, more than 18,000 were on hand to see a doubleheader. When the ballplayers were not on the field, there was a track and field exhibition featuring Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Helen Stephens, a white track and field athlete who won two gold medals in Berlin. In the 100-yard dash, Owens gave Stephens a 10-yard lead at the start and Stephens held the lead until the 75-yard mark. She looked back, and Owens ran past her, winning the race by a yard. “Don’t look back,” of course, was a favorite saying of Satchel Paige. His Kansas City Monarchs were there and played two games, defeating the Chicago Brown Bombers 9-1, in the opener, and defeating a team of Chicago firemen 4-3 in the second game.13 Pitching for the firemen was Leroy Parmelee, who had pitched for the New York Giants and three other teams during a 10-year major-league career.

Black baseball at Wrigley Field came to an abrupt halt in 1945. In the aftermath of an incident on June 17, 1945, the fee for Negro League teams using Wrigley Field was increased to a $5,000 guarantee, which was prohibitively expensive.14 In a game between the Clowns and the Memphis Red Sox, Jim Ford, playing for Memphis, struck an umpire, Mr. Armstrong. The behavior of the Memphis manager, Larry Brown, especially drew the ire of Cubs officials. Brown joined the melee and threatened the other umpire, Mr. Young. Negro American League President J.B. Martin did not take the matter seriously, imposing a small fine of $50 on Ford. Cubs management effectively said, “No Negro teams in Wrigley Field.”15 The umpires did not want to continue the game and did so only after being warned by Brown that “such actions (stoppage of play) would cause park owners to bar his club from use of the park.” Pursuant to the increase in fees, a game between Kansas City and Birmingham that had been scheduled at Wrigley for July 8 was moved to Kansas City.16

After Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, there was pressure in Chicago to sign a Black player. Two players from the Chicago American Giants were at a tryout, Harold Mason and John F. Ritchey. Among the voices for change was Fay Young, a Black sportswriter, who accompanied Ritchey to the tryout.

But it wouldn’t be until September 17, 1953, and the arrival of Ernie Banks, that a Black ballplayer would wear the flannels of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Sources

In addition to the sources shown in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com.

Notes

1 R.S. Simmons, “Satchel Paige Baffles Dizzy Dean’s All-Stars Before 29,000: Hilton Smith Stars in Relief Role as Monarchs Win, 3-1,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 30, 1942: 16. Simmons’s play-by-play accounts of the game were a major source for this article.

2 Timothy M. Gay, Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2010), 2.

3 “Dean’s Service Team Loses,” The Sporting News, May 28, 1942: 15.

4 Associated Press, “Cracks Down on Promotional Tilts,” Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), June 5, 1942: 22.

5 Gay, 12.

6 Gary Bedingfield, Baseball in Wartime (online), March 24, 2007.

7 Howard Martin, “Monarchs, Plus Paige, Beat Stars, Minus Feller, 3 to 1,” Chicago Tribune, May 25, 1942: 19.

8 United Press, “Navy Flags Bob Feller’s Barnstorming, so 29,775 See Satchel Paige’s Nine Win,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 1942: 21.

9 Fay Young, “Through the Years: Past Present Future,” Chicago Defender, May 30, 1942: 19.

10 Tim Wendel, “The GI World Series,” The National Pastime Museum, December 10, 2015.

11 “Chicago to Honor Satchel Paige Sunday: Paige Will Face Lefty Mathis and Memphis at Wrigley Field July 26 – Defender to Give Gold Watch,” Chicago Defender, July 25, 1942: 19.

12 “Paige Will Pitch and Catch Gifts at Game Today,” Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1942: 2, 4.

13 Associated Press, “Owens Beats Helen Stephens by Less Than Yard in Century Dash,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 5, 1944: 6A.

14 Albert Anderson, “Chicago Cubs See Promise in Ritchey, Race Catcher,” New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Virginia), September 27, 1947: 22.

15 “Rental Fee Hiked to $5,000; Fans, Players Responsible: Poor Public Conduct. Violence on Field Forces Cubs’ Management to Demand Bigger Guarantee in Chicago,” Pittsburgh Courier, July 7, 1945: 16.

16 “No More Negro Baseball Games at Wrigley Field,” Chicago Defender, July 7, 1945: 7.